“U” shaped dining area structure in our Didi 40 Cr is now completed
Floor in the dining area and false floors inside the seats are fitted.
Galley panels for our Didi 40 Cr are cut and waiting for cleats to be fitted.
The hardwood rails for the galley sliding doors will go in this space behind the fridge and stove. I broke one router bit on the first few centimetres so reverted to the circular saw to cut the grooves.
After several weeks where tedious fibreglassing took up most of the time I am now building in furniture from plywood sheets. The first structure was the extra seats that form the “U” shaped sitting area. The front seat is for general storage while the back seat will house the battery bank. The structures are built, the false floors added and the lids cut. They still need to be painted and the lids hinged but the upholsterer can now measure up the last two seat cushions. With the seats in place I was able to cut the temporary plywood floor into the final shapes and add edged supports where needed.
The settee area with the new seats provided a very good working platform to start on the engine compartment and galley furniture. It is quite a tight fit with just 475 mm between the quarter berth ante room wall and the galley top and the engine enclosure cannot be any smaller. I had to cut a hole in one side of the engine enclosure to give some clearance to the bigger alternator on the new Yanmar YM30. The hole is inside a cupboard so it will not seen but it showed how tight a fit it is. I also cut holes on both sides where the nuts on the engine mounts interfere with the side panels.
Tonight all the plywood panels for the top and sides or the galley furniture are complete. I still have to cut the end panels of the engine enclosure and will make them a stitch and glue item I will edge glue the sloping and angled pieces and once cured remove it from the boat and glass the corners on the shop floor.
I have to work out the detailing of the drawers in the galley and will probably do two drawers in the top half and one big deep pots and pan drawer in the bottom half.
There is lots to do including fitting the foam into the refrigerator and making a good insulated lid for that and also fitting the sinks into the galley top. With the galley structure in place I can now start thinking about the floor support cleats.